Welcome to transatlantic encounters!

As we’re sure you know by now, the Kunsthaus Zürich is gearing up for a dynamic and discursive future when the new extension opens at the end of 2017. In it, the Kunsthaus’s own holdings of contemporary art are to be joined by some 70 selected works from the major Zurich-based collection of Hubert Looser. Its main focus is on Abstract Expressionism, Minimal Art and Arte Povera – three movements that developed in the US and Europe in the second half of the 20th century, sometimes in parallel, sometimes consciously separate, and sometimes cross-fertilizing.

The Hubert Looser Collection is now receiving its first comprehensive showing in Switzerland. At the exhibition’s heart are paintings, sculptures and installations. It also includes works from areas that will not form part of the future long-term loan to the Kunsthaus, such as pieces by artists associated with Surrealism in Switzerland; informal trends from the 1950s; and works by Picasso and Tinguely, both of whom are already strongly represented at the Kunsthaus.

In the extension designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the Hubert Looser Collection will be displayed in revolving presentations in an area specifically set aside for it. The transitions to the Kunsthaus collection are deliberately fluid, allowing for regular encounters between works and ensembles from the two collections. The synergies that this is expected to create are the subject of this exhibition and the associated publication, conceived by collection curator Philippe Büttner together with Hubert Looser. The result is a surprisingly stimulating, instructive and entertaining experience of key phases of modern art since 1945, with works from the ‘old’ world and the ‘new’ manifesting both contradictions and connections.

These are exciting times for the Kunsthaus. Visit us now and share our anticipation of what’s to come!